ECHOES OF COMRADE RAMIZ ALIA’S WORDS \nWE ARE FREE AND INDEPENDENT, THIS IS HOW WE WANT TO BE AND THIS IS HOW WE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN\n\nNo one can toy with our feelings\n- KUKËS -\n\n- Comrade Ramiz, the director of the eight-year school in the village of Tregtan in the district of Kukës, Ymer Shurbi, tells us, fulfilled a wish of the people. At first glance, it seems as though the socialist path we have followed has become the object and target of Belgrade’s fabrications. In reality, everything is under attack: our people’s power is under attack, socialism is under attack, in an attempt to turn back the wheel of history. But, as always, this poison they spewed against us landed on their own heads and exposed them for what they are. Everything we have achieved has come through great work, through sweat and sacrifice. We are ready to make new sacrifices to protect it.\nWe also met in Krumë with the director of the mining construction enterprise, Bashkim Durmishi. He had come to see the preparations for opening the newest mine, for extracting chromium in Perovaj. Perovaj, Vlahan and Nikoliqi are both village names and mine names. The people you meet in this area are optimistic; there is not even a single unemployed person, and the emigration of the past has been forgotten. There is confidence in the future of the village, the region and the country. It is even said that a ferrochrome plant and a nickel-silicate combine will also be built in Has. Even if these ideas have not yet been drawn up, hardworking people have the right to dream of them too. They started from nothing, and the country has become one great mine, from end to end. Then, Bashkimi adds, everything the Party has designed and planned has become reality. This too makes us optimistic. We do not make a fuss or noise, but we are confident about the future. We are in our own home, and we ourselves are the masters of the house.\n\nNAIM ZOTO\nThe same people! One of the most distorted principles of a distorted propaganda is this: “Lie, lie, and something will always stick!” A lie is harbored and nurtured by malice, ill will and hostility. The spectacular upheaval took place in Eastern Europe. It did not happen in Albania; this surprised them, although we had predicted it 30 and 40 years ago. Those who spread lies against Albania circulated news around the world that Albania, too, was experiencing unrest of the kind seen in Eastern Europe. We denounced that East in good time, long before we also denounced the Warsaw Pact. Were we wrong to denounce its failure, which we had foreseen? We have always defended the rights of peoples to build their lives as they themselves wish and not submit to aggressors. Were we wrong to denounce the aggressors? Were we wrong to defend, in law and in practice, the rights of minorities, whom others elsewhere drown in blood? Were we wrong? The liars do not like these and our other highly humane positions. What do they want? Those who look at Albania and portray it askew launch campaign after campaign against us, and now here is yet another campaign. And it is clear that they are the same people: those who turned their countries into prisons for peoples; those who forcibly impose their own enslavers as rulers on so many states; those who ignite and keep alive the so-called local wars throughout the continents; those who speak of human rights so that the stronger may oppress the weaker. No one can take peoples hostage and prevent them from seeing and admiring the path of freedom and courageous Albanian independence. Many unbiased and honest foreigners come and go from Shkodra to Gjirokastër. Many planes travel back and forth between Albania, Europe and the world. There they can find accurate news, if they look for it in the offices that manufacture lies. Why do the liars begrudge Albania its peace? Because Albania used to feed one million people and today feeds three million or more? Because it was illiterate and today mass education at secondary and higher levels is widespread? Or because it does not owe a single lek to those merciless creditors whose debts, 50 years ago, helped sustain foreign tyranny, after the local sultan who sold and resold the country? But Albania has become its own master! We have suffered terribly, so that we will not forget history. In the last century they dismembered our homeland according to a plan to swallow it whole, but they failed. They failed to drown the freedom we proclaimed in 1912. They made Albania very small during the two great world wars, but once again they failed. And they are the same people, the ones who plot campaigns of lies. The Albanian people, who never forget their old and recent history, tell them: “Hands off Albania! I am master here.”\nDHIMITËR SHTUTERIQI, writer

\n\nThe member of the Political Bureau of the Party’s Central Committee and Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Comrade Adil Çaçani, visited the district of Elbasan in recent days.\nThere, he visited the «Çeliku i Partisë» metallurgical combine, where he met workers and specialists on the second shift at the steel plant, learned firsthand about their work and achievements, and exchanged views on fulfilling and exceeding this year’s plan targets and those for the years ahead, as well as on their working and living conditions, etc. At the meeting organized on this occasion in one of the halls of the «Çeliku i Partisë» metallurgical combine with workers, specialists and cadres from the combine’s plants, the combine’s director, Robert Zonja, reported on the work being done to fulfill and exceed the targets for the final year of the eighth five-year plan. The workers and cadres who spoke discussed and pledged to increase their mobilization even further in order to exceed this year’s plan targets, and expressed their readiness and determination to defend the victories achieved and the freedom and independence of our socialist homeland. At the same time, they voiced their indignation at the enemies’ slanders against Albania, as well as their steel-like unity around the Party, headed by Comrade Ramiz Alia.\nIn his speech, Comrade Adil Çaçani, among other things, emphasized that it is part of our Party’s working style to maintain ties with the masses and have contact with them, in order to see and hear how the Party’s directives and decisions are being implemented, learn from them, and determine how to move forward with the country’s economic and social development, so that everything is subject to the scrutiny, comments and views of the masses.\nAfter speaking about the achievements made in 1989 on all fronts of work and life, he focused on the great economic, social and political importance of the «Çeliku i Partisë» metallurgical combine for our country. Its products make the various branches of the national economy connected with the combine increasingly independent. Many branches and sectors of the economy are activated through its operations. For this reason, all the people closely follow the work of the combine’s fighting collective and rejoice at each of its achievements.\nThe year 1990, which we have just begun, he went on to emphasize, is of great importance for successfully fulfilling the eighth five-year plan, because its targets have also been raised. Difficulties will certainly arise in the course of implementation, but we must anticipate and overcome them in a militant, fighting spirit, with economic thinking and scientific management, as well as with concrete organizational measures to find the best possible solutions, strict technical discipline at work and a rigorous economy regime.\nHe stressed that increasing the combine’s efficiency has been and will remain an important issue for it in the future, a task that currently calls for very serious attention. New ways must be found to reduce the consumption norms for raw materials, energy, fuels, etc., which make up a large share of the combine’s production costs and constitute a broad field of work in which the creative collaboration of workers, specialists and cadres from the entire combine must be brought to bear. Before all the workers,\n(Continued on page 2)

— KORÇË — I see these devotional books,” says Franëkin Xega, historian and lecturer at the Albanian Museum of Medieval Art. “Other volumes are made just for me as well.” Among the many signatures are those of scholars and friends of ours from Greece. In the notes left by our Greek friends, one can sense a neighbor’s sincere respect for another neighbor. They often mentioned in them the book written by Enver Hoxha, “Two Friendly Peoples.” We have exchanged literature with one another. Scholars from Greece have sent us valuable publications that have helped us in our work. That is why we say: the slogans of the Greek reactionaries’ chauvinist cliques have nothing in common with the sincere voices of our friends and the Greek people. Many Greek writers and poets, when visiting Korçë, have also come here, writer Kristaq Balli tells us. He is secretary of the district branch of the League of Writers and Artists and works at the museum. “There, in front of the work of the great Onufri, we have talked as creators with creators, but also about the ancient kindness that has withstood the passage of time. We have been pleased by the warm words they have spoken and have also expressed in reports and beautiful poems, in which Korçë has been mentioned, with its attractive architecture and wonderful nature. We recall one fact: the renowned Greek poet Jorgo Seferis considered his time in Korçë, where he served as consul in 1936–1937, as he himself said, among the most productive periods for his creative work.” That is how people in Korçë talk with everyone today. But let us also emphasize this truth, borne out by history: chauvinist passion has nothing to do with the genuine feelings of friendship between peoples. KOSTAQ DUKA

Yesterday, an agreement on international road transport between the Government of the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania and the Government of the People’s Republic of Poland was signed in Tirana. On the Albanian side, the agreement was signed by Ferdinand Tako, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Transport, and on the Polish side by— …nd by the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the People’s Republic of Poland to the People’s Socialist Republic of Albania, Vladislav Ciaston. The Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade, Altin Ylli, Andon Bërxholi, a director in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and other comrades attended the signing ceremony. (ATSH)

The delegation of the General Council of BGSH, headed by Fatime Bercam, a member of the Council’s Presidium, returned to the homeland from the Republic of Greece. At the invitation of the National Union of Women of Mali, it had taken part in the 5th Congress of that organization. (ATSH)

ONE OF THE DAY’S INTERNATIONAL EVENTS Last September, according to the timetable set by the Vietnamese government and the Cambodian government of Prime Minister Hun Sen, the withdrawal of all Vietnamese troops from Cambodia was completed. Their departure was accompanied by an increase in the international prestige of Hun Sen’s government, while tensions inside the country increased as a result of the war and attacks by Pol Potist bands against populated areas. Recently, tensions have increased around several cities in the western regions of the country. While Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is working to achieve national unity in order to protect the population from attacks by Pol Potist bands, intensive diplomatic activity concerning the Cambodian question is taking place on the international stage. Not long ago, the Cambodian question was one of the agenda items discussed by Soviet Deputy Foreign Minister Rogacov with his Chinese counterpart during his visit to Beijing. Meanwhile, a two-day meeting in Paris of the permanent representatives of the Security Council (USA, USSR, China, England and France) on the Cambodian question has just concluded. At the center of the discussions was the Australian initiative to give the United Nations a major role in resolving the Cambodian problem. At the end of the Paris meeting, all five permanent members of the Security Council adopted a joint declaration, whose central point is to increase the UN’s role in resolving the Cambodian problem. According to the declaration, the five will use their influence to bring an end to the fighting and begin a dialogue among the Cambodian factions. This will be followed by a transitional period leading up to the organization of free elections under the joint administration of the UN. To ensure internal stability during this transitional period, the declaration says, an effective UN presence is necessary. A special representative of the Secretary-General, Peter de Kuelar, is needed to oversee the UN’s activities during this period. Finally, it is emphasized that the five will support the responsible efforts of the regional parties. It is worth noting that several unofficial regional meetings have been held so far, but they have been obstructed by the position of the Pol Potists and their supporters. During the days when the Paris meeting was taking place, France reiterated its position that it would not accept the Pol Potists’ return to power. Meanwhile, during those same days, Bia-Sia, in one of its commentaries, stressed that the world would react if the Pol Potists came to power again. Political observers consider the fact that, following the Vietnamese withdrawal last September, Prime Minister Hun Sen’s government is increasingly recognized around the world to be a positive step in the Cambodian process. LULZIM ÇOTA

AT THE “KAFJA E MADHE” CAFÉ (REBUILT), SHKODËR. (Photo: G. Xhengo = ATSH) AT THE “KAFJA E MADHE” CAFÉ (REBUILT), SHKODËR. (Photo: G. Xhengo = ATSH)

\n- ELBASAN -\n\nWe pupils and teachers are hurt and indignant at the crude fabrications of certain scribblers and voices coming from Belgrade and elsewhere, says Merushe Bishmani, principal of the «Onufri» art school. To take on the role of fabricator when even the dearest feelings are at stake, such as freedom, shows not merely a lack of enlightenment. These petty voices... To the fighters of Saragozë, the participants in the Greek revolution, he sang with passion of the bravery, love of freedom and moral virtues of the Albanian Souliotes. Before he was a poet, Byron was a human being, a cultured citizen; that is why he won everyone’s hearts, because he sang of the highest feeling, freedom, the feeling that we Albanians hold most dear... 6–18-year-old age groups. In their curricula they study many foreign authors in the fields of music, painting, literature, science, etc.\nI teach literature at the school. An essay by E-plona, a pupil in the 10th grade, impressed me. It was on the subject «Childe Harold—a song of freedom». Among other things, she writes: «...What governments did not do, or did not want to do, Byron did. He wove praise for them and for their feelings. Albanians hold most dear...»\n\nSEJDIN CEKANI

\n\nThe workers’ collectives of the oil industrial region in Qyteti Stalin have become an inspiring example for all the workers of the district of Berat. Nearly all the enterprises in the region achieved the targets for the first half of January ahead of schedule.\nAt the «Mafuz Llaze» oil machinery plant, industrial production for the two weeks exceeded the target by 10,000 lekë in most product categories. The oil exploration and drilling workers, exceeding the drilling speed per rig-month by an average of 3.6 percent, achieved 102 percent of the exploration and drilling volume planned for the first two weeks of January. (According to ATSH)

• WE ARE FREE AND INDEPENDENT; THIS IS WHAT WE WANT AND THIS IS HOW WE WILL ALWAYS REMAIN (page 1). • THE DEPARTMENTS OF THE HIGHER SCHOOL SHOULD BE AT THE FOREFRONT OF SCIENTIFIC THOUGHT (pages 2–3). • “SERBIAN NATIONALISM IS THE MAIN CAUSE OF THE CRISIS” IN KOSOVO (page 4).